The Project: Inspiration

The Project: Preserve

The Project: Preserve

The Project: Explore

The Project: Explore

The Project: Extend

The Project: Extend

The Softalk Apple Project is very pleased to announce that Chris Torrence has accepted the role of Roger Wagner Volunteer Archivist for the Softalk Apple Project. Chris brings to the project a long standing appreciation for Softalk magazine and particularly for the articles written by Roger Wagner on Assembly Language. As Chris stated in accepting this Volunteer Archivist role:

I received my first complimentary issue of Softalk in January 1982, a couple of months after my family had won an Apple II+ at a computer store grand opening in Detroit, Michigan. I was 13 years old and in 8th grade, and from that point on, I was hooked on computers. I remember pouring over each issue of Softalk, reading reviews of new games, and interviews with people like Buckminster Fuller and Richard Bach.

This is the first of Roger Wagner's Assembly Lines column which began its illustrious run in the October, 1980 issue. The OCR and reprint processing of this article was made possible in part by the support of STAP Project Backer, Chris Torrence. Chris is a currently working (with the support and interest of Roger) on "Roger Wagner's Assembly Lines: The Missing Volume" (or whatever it will be called). This new publication will bring together the Assembly Lines columns from Softalk magazine that did not make it to book form prior to the end of Softalk Publishing.

The start is really a few years before 1984 when I wrote my article about Sherlock Holmes for Softalk. During the time I was working as an editor at Bruce Publishing I wrote a short story in the mid-sixties about an alcoholic chess player who defeats a computer. Computers were a sort of curious mystical engine in those days.

Due to his unselfish and heroic dedication to the too-often thankless but ultimately essential and critical task of helping to organize and do the necessary bulk scanning of Softalk issues in advance of our being able to jump all over it playing FactMiners, I hereby decree that Wednesday, March 19th, 2014 is Pete 'Lo-Res' Caylor MegaScanner Hero Day throughout the Land. Hear ye, hear ye! All Friends of Softalk thank you, and I hereby award you a bonus of 500 FactMiners pre-launch game points. :-)

It's been another pretty productive week here in the Scanning & Preservation SIG. Taking into account the scans of ST.Mac and Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer publications, together with the original Softalk magazine for the Apple, the STAP archive now has over 825 GB (gigabytes) of Softalk publication scans. Here's what I've been up to on behalf of the SIG this week:

When I posted "Sherlock and the Analytical Engine," a question came up on the author’s copyright. Unlike most of the content in Softalk, for fiction articles the copyright belonged to the author. If I wanted to showcase this story, I had to get permission to post this article from Bruno. To do that, I had to find him first. Thirty years is a long time.

Those who consider themselves to be 'Friends of Softalk' have a special place in their hearts and in their memories for why Softalk was, and remains, an important part of their lives. Once identified as a Friend of Softalk, we often hear detailed anecdotes from others testifying to the impact that simply reading this great magazine had on their youth, or at an otherwise formative time in their lives. Now, The Softalk Apple Project is going to have some "serious fun" finding out just "What Softalk Means to Me" by virtue of our new content type for contributions to the STAP website.

Over the years since 1887 when Sherlock Holmes first appeared in publication, there have been many a gnarly case his keen skills in abductive reasoning have solved. But the case of the Analytic Engine in the April 1984 issue of Softalk truly tested the limits of his deductive thinking.

Take a short and clever dive into an example of Softalk's Storytalk Fiction as we reprint Bruno Wolff's short story. Scans of the actual pages (154-57) can be found in the April '84 issue profile.

The Softalk Apple Project is pleased to announce that Joe Liberto has joined the project community to lead the Softalk East SIG (Special Interest Group).

"We got our Apple II in late 1983," Joe recalled, "I remember the first issue that came had a cover about how the Mac was made." Each succeeding Softalk issue helped Joe develop a deeper and broader interest in technology and its application to social issues and community building. Joe is currently Technology Ministry Coordinator at St. Joseph Parish in Cockeysville, Maryland.

The Scanning & Preservation SIG is pleased to publish our first Progress Report. Currently, the SIG consists of Jim Salmons and the amazing Peter 'Lo-Res' Caylor with Pete stepping up to do a Herculean level of high resolution, reference-image scanning.

This report is jointly written (by my pulling exciting details from Pete's email updates to me) but with my final editing, publication, and promotion so I can more easily say how amazing Pete is.